Erdogan expected to turn another Istanbul church into mosque

From The Tablet

Now that Turkey has turned Hagia Sophia in Istanbul back into a mosque, concern is rising that the same fate awaits another Orthodox church there with some of the most beautiful mosaics and frescos in the Christian world. 

The interior of Holy Saviour in Chora, a medieval Byzantine church in western Istanbul that is now a museum, is covered with Bible scenes and portraits of Jesus and the saints dating back to the fourteenth century. 

The Ottoman Turks turned Chora into a mosque half a century after their conquest of Constantinople in 1453, hiding its rich artwork under a layer of plaster because Islam bans iconic images.

After the Second World War, then-secular Turkey changed it into the Kariye Museum and allowed American experts to restore it to its old glory. The unique mosaics and frescos have been on display since 1958. Holy Saviour in Chora is registered as a Unesco heritage site. 

The State Council of Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now promotes an Islamic revival, decided last November that it should be turned back into a mosque, but the decision has not yet been implemented. 

Giannis Theocharis of the Greek Archeologists’ Association said: “it is quite probable that the monument will be switched from the archaeological service to the general directorate of religious establishments.” It would then be changed into a mosque. 

Before converting Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, French historian Fabrice Monnier noted, Turkey had already turned two church-museums back into mosques in recent years, the artistically less notable Hagia Sophia buildings in Iznik, formerly Nicaea, and Trabzon. 

Holy Saviour in Chora is different, he told Le Figaro. “Its beautiful mosaics and frescos cover almost all the church’s walls and domes,” he said. “It would be hard to imagine it being returned into a mosque without totally covering them over.” 

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One Response

  1. Would it not be possible for interested people in the West to buy the mosiacs and transport them to a safe home? There may be technical problems but I would have thought it would be possible.

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